Tag Archives: Democratic primary

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Is this for real? Sanders is becoming a prohibitive favorite?

My friends to the left aren’t going to like reading this, but that’s too bad. I happen to believe that Democratic Party primary voters are on the cusp of slitting their own proverbial throats if they think Sen. Bernie Sanders will defeat Donald John Trump in this year’s presidential election.

Sanders is the flavor of the moment. He is likely to win the Nevada caucus this weekend. He is gearing up for a big show in California on Super Tuesday, on March 3.

I cannot predict how a Trump-Sanders matchup will end, but it certainly appears as though the current president will be primed to win re-election in a significant manner. By that I believe it might turn into a landslide.

That, I submit, would be the most disastrous outcome imaginable.

Donald Trump needs to lose this election. The country needs for him to lose it. Is the Democratic Party going to do so by nominating a “democratic socialist” who has declared war on billionaires, who pledges massive wealth redistribution, who wants to provide free college education and free health care in that Medicare For All proposal?

Umm. No. Trump is quite likely to defeat Sanders. That’s my humble view, for whatever it’s worth.

I continue to prefer a more centrist approach. I want Democrats to nominate someone who can work with Republicans. I want the party nominee to be someone with legislative heft, with gravitas.

My first choice would be Joe Biden. I want the former vice president to collect himself and to start showing some signs of the formidable figure I believe he can become. That’s my hope.

My fear is that Democrats are hurtling toward the nation’s second consecutive presidential election travesty.

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Do you really want this, Democratic contenders?

All of the nine (or so) Democrats remaining in the hunt for the party’s presidential nomination say they want to be the person at the top of the heap.

But … do they?

It’s been fascinating in the extreme to listen to those in the the back-of-the-pack or the middle-of-the-pack crowd go after the front runners as they climb over each other in the race to curry voters’ favor.

We had Joe Biden standing as the prohibitive front runner for most of 2019. Then came the impeachment hearings and the Senate trial. Not only did Democratic opponents go hammer and tong at Biden, but then we had the congressional Republicans take up arms against him. They accused him, baselessly in my view, of being corrupt.

Biden has faded. Now it’s Bernie Sanders’ turn. Democrats are going after him for being a socialist, for advocating policies that will bankrupt the nation. Bernie is still standing relatively tall.

Oh, but Elizabeth Warren has gotten her share of brickbats from her Democratic foes, again largely on the same basis as the anti-Sanders attacks.

Pete Buttigieg has drawn his share of Democratic ire. He’s too green. He hasn’t developed a sufficient body of government experience.

OK, now it’s Michael Bloomberg’s turn. He is trying to “buy” the nomination. He is spending tens of millions of dollars of his own money to tell voters that he’s got the chops to do the job and — by the way — take down Donald John Trump.

It’s a nomination worth having for the moment. I am left to wonder though whether it will still be worth having when the Democratic contenders get done beating the stuffing out of whomever emerges from this donnybrook to go after the current president of the United States.

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Democratic presidential field winnows even more

Andrew Yang is out. So is Michael Bennet.

Who’s next? Tulsi Gabbard might pack it in.

Yang and Bennet got next to zero support in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary. So the process that is supposed to cull the also-rans from the more formidable candidates is doing its job.

Yang, of course, offered that strange $1,000 monthly payment to every American. Bennet, a U.S. senator from Colorado, didn’t offer much of anything worth remembering.

As I write this brief note, Bernie Sanders is leading the primary. Pete Buttigieg is running second, with Amy Klobuchar running third.

Joe Biden? He boogied from the state earlier today and is now among friends and supporters in South Carolina, where he is likely to mount his last stand. If the former VP doesn’t win there, well … it’s game over for him, too.

Let us not forget we have two mega rich guys, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, still in the hunt. Oh, boy.

So it goes on.

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Bernie is waging a ‘class warfare’ campaign

Bernie Sanders and his political allies seem to take pleasure in accusing Donald John Trump of separating Americans by class, that the president favors the rich over the poor, given the nature — they say — of the tax cuts that Congress enacted.

But … wait!

The Vermont independent U.S. senator who is competing for the Democratic presidential nomination is waging a class warfare campaign of his very own.

Listen to him. He blasts billionaires, accusing them of trying to “buy” the presidency. He says — with justification, I should add — that his campaign is being funded by non-billionaires, that he is soliciting small- to medium-sized contributions from regular folks.

Sanders vows to govern on behalf of the “average American” wage earner he is elected president of the United States near the of the year.

There’s plenty I do not like about Sanders. I oppose his Medicare for All mantra; I believe his pledge to give every American college student a free education is unrealistic; I am much more of a capitalist than a “democratic socialist.”

I also am wearing of hearing him invoke his demonization of wealthy Americans, of weaving the scolding lecture into virtually every answer he delivers to every question he receives.

Sen. Sanders is waging a class war while at the same time vowing to “unify” the nation he wants to govern. Just how does he do both things at once?

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Mayor Pete lacks ‘experience’? Please …

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

I am giggling at home as I read about how Democratic Party presidential candidates aredinging Pete Buttigieg over an alleged “lack of experience” to become president of the United States.

Former Vice President Joe Biden makes an issue of it. So does U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Same with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Hey, I have three words for them: Donald John Trump.

Allow me to be crystal clear on this point: I am not saying that Donald Trump’s absolute absence of any public service experience has served the country well. It hasn’t. He is a disastrous excuse for a president, a commander in chief, the leader of the world’s most indispensable nation.

I just want to caution those who contend that Pete Buttigieg isn’t equipped to run the federal government’s executive branch.

Donald Trump got elected in 2016 despite lacking even a lick of experience. Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Ind., mayor, looks to me like a seasoned government hand compared to what Trump offered voters.

Does he have the chops of many of his rivals, such as the U.S. senators against whom he is running, or the former vice president (who also served for 36 years in the Senate)? No.

Remember, though, what has become something of a mantra about the current president, which is that if Donald Trump can be elected to the nation’s highest office, well … then anyone can get elected!

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Keep it simple: Get rid of these caucuses!

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I just have to say something without any equivocation.

This Iowa caucus kerfuffle, this SNAFU, the chaos and confusion, has my head spinning. I feel like the Linda Blair character in “The Exorcist.”

We need to return to a simpler, more straightforward way of selecting our presidential candidates. Let’s just rely on actual voters casting votes on actual ballots. Let’s also just do away with “apps” that have the potential of blowing this process to smithereens, which is what has happened in Iowa.

Iowa Democratic Party officials blame the blowup on a technical mistake. They have said throughout this mess that no one hacked into our system; no one sabotaged it; there has been apparently no “foreign interference.”

But get this: The Department of Homeland Security offered to run this app through its paces prior to the actual caucus, but the party bosses in Iowa declined! Bad call, Iowa Democrats.

Here’s yet another point to ponder. The Russians who interfered in our 2016 presidential election, then interfered in our 2018 midterm election and are ramping up their attack strategy for the 2020 election can take a measure of “credit” for sowing the seeds of mistrust, distrust and angst at our electoral system.

The screw-up in Iowa only feeds that uncertainty. Indeed, the anxiety is stuffing itself on the incompetence demonstrated by the Iowa Democratic Party.

I want to say it again, with passion: No more of these idiotic caucuses. Let us pick our presidential nominees with votes cast on ballots

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Bloomberg set to spend several fortunes on POTUS race? Wow!

There is something profoundly off-putting to learn that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is ready to spend a billion of his own dollars on his campaign to become president of the United States.

I’m not sure what Bloomberg is worth. I hear it’s anywhere from $20 billion to $50 billion. When he commits to spending as much as $1 billion of his own stash to become president, I realize it’s a mere drop of spittle in the man’s personal fortune. Good grief. He can piddle away that amount of money and never even miss it!

Is this what we can expect? Donald Trump’s election in 2016 marked a historical turning point in that regard … regardless of the countless other matters that have drawn so much public scrutiny.

Here we are again as we enter another election year.

Bloomberg is forgoing the early primaries. He is spending mountains of money on TV ads. They’ve been airing in Texas incessantly, focusing primarily on health care issues. Indeed, a Dallas Morning News story in today’s paper talked about how the still-large Democratic Party primary field is going to focus greatly on Texas as the POTUS train chugs its way toward Super Tuesday in March.

Does this portend a fight for Texas’s 38 Electoral College votes in the fall campaign once Democrats find a nominee? Well, time will tell.

I happen to one American voter who is likely to be turned off by the idea of a major party nominee purchasing a nomination with cash drawn from his bottomless pockets.

Perhaps there’s the issue, too, of the waffling that Bloomberg exhibited prior to getting into this contest. He made a fairly big show of telling the world that he would not run for president. Then he’s in, saying he was dissatisfied with the quality of the Democratic field fighting among itself to see who would run against Trump. Talk about presumptuous!

No one asked my opinion, but I happen to be one of those Democratic-leaning voters who is satisfied with the field that is running for the party nomination. One of them will emerge as the nominee and it is my hope the party selects someone with the right stuff to take on Donald Trump.

Moreover, my sentiment prefers that the nominee be battle-tested in a primary system that pits the nominee against the other candidates head to head.

Bloomberg is acting like someone who believes he should remain “above the fray.”

Uh, Mr. Mayor? That doesn’t necessarily play well with at least one primary voter. That would be me.

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Rep. Ryan drops out of 2020 race for POTUS; more should follow

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan didn’t have a prayer of being nominated by the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States, let alone of being elected.

So, today he called a halt to it.

Frankly, in the discussion about the still-monstrous Democratic field, I barely ever heard his name mentioned.

Ryan is done. There clearly needs to be others who will step aside, return to what they were doing before they decided to run. Former Housing Secretary and ex-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro has said he needs to raise $800,000 soon; if he falls short, he’s out. Hmm.  We’ll see.

Look, the race has boiled down to about five, maybe six Democrats.

Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and perhaps Amy Klobuchar are still in the hunt. The rest of them? Well, they ought to reconsider their future.

I’ll presume Rep. Ryan does a good job for his Ohio constituents.

The winnowing of the field should continue. I am growing tired of trying to listen to the field seek to outshout one another on those joint appearance stages.

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Castro launches cheap shot at Biden

You may count me as one of those Americans who gasped just a tad tonight when Julian Castro seemed to launch an ageist attack against Joe Biden.

The two men were part of a 10-candidate Democratic presidential candidate joint appearance tonight in Houston.

The former vice president, Biden, sought to make a point about “Medicare for all.” He opposes a plan pitched by opponents Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. He said he supported a provision in the Affordable Care Act, which gave Americans a chance to “buy in” to insurance plans provided by the ACA.

Castro then launched a verbal barrage, accusing the former VP of “forgetting” what he just said. He said several times in just a few seconds that Biden “forgot” something he said only moments earlier. The audience at the Texas Southern University hall gasped audibly.

I have to say I thought the moment revealed an ugly side of the former Housing secretary and former San Antonio mayor.

Moreover, he misrepresented what Biden actually said … which makes his attack even worse.

Ageism has no place

I don’t know who won this encounter. They all seemed to score sufficient points arguing with each other at times. However, Julian Castro’s baseless barrage appears to have been the lowest point that any of the candidates suffered.

Too bad.

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Hey Democratic candidates for POTUS, come on down!

Hey, I understand the large field of Democrats running for president of the United States have been seen scurrying around the Iowa State Fair. They’re scarfing down alleged “fair food,” kissing babies, shaking hands, begging for votes.

Good for them. Good for Iowa, which kicks off the nation’s first electoral process leading up to the 2020 presidential election.

However, we’ve got a state fair coming up right here in Texas. The Texas State Fair commences in Dallas on Sept. 27. It runs until Oct. 20. They’ll play a big college football game — Texas vs. Oklahoma — during the run of the fair.

Oh, and Texas figures to be every bit as much of a “battleground state” in 2020 as, say, Iowa. And … our primary will be early in the election season.

Here’s my point. I want to see the Democrats pour into Texas just as they have done in Iowa, are doing so as well in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two other early primary states.

I live a bit north of Big D, but I just might find some time to venture to the State Fairgrounds before the fair closes down for the year. I want to see some of these folks up close. I want to hear with my own ears what they’re telling voters, how they’re pitching their candidacies.

Come on, candidates. Big Tex beckons you to the Texas State Fair.

What’s more, the fried beer is worth a try.